Books: The Idea of Hope

THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER by William Styron. 428 pages. Random
House. $6.95.

In the summer of 1831, a force of 60 Negroes led by a mad, messianic
slave named Nat Turner cut a red swath through the Virginia Tidewater
country, slaughtering every white man, woman and child in their path.
Although it was suppressed in two days, the rebellion claimed 55
victims. Its leader died on the gallows with 16 of his men. His body
was flayed and the flesh rendered into grease; some souvenir-minded
Virginian sliced a money purse out of the...